photo: Bruce Lhuillier

Friday morning, just after midnight (EST), the full Moon reaches her greatest distance from the Sun to illuminate what lies below the surface of our consciousness. I suppose Moonlight always lights what we can’t see with our daylight vision, but the degree of this full Moon offers the planetary psyche, all of us, ‘a new dimension of reality.’ This full Moon takes place as a celebration of the Sun’s entry into Sagittarius, a constellation of great hope and vision. Moon enters the opposite sign ofGemini as a way to communicate (the specialty of this sign) what Sagittarius wants to reveal.

The planet who guides Gemini, Mercury, the magician, lives at the degree of a special image of deep power and imagination: IN THE LEFT SECTION OF AN ARCHAIC TEMPLE, A LAMP BURNS IN A CONTAINER SHAPED LIKE A HUMAN BODY.

clay figure: Sarah Fuhro

How does the human body bring light to ancient problems? I depend upon my body’s response to tell me what my eyes cannot see. More and more I find that my breath changes perception. And as Mercury is on a retrograde journey, we must plan to stop for a moment to learn everything over again, the breath, the perception, the Moon lit road.

photo: Bruce Lhuillier

Think of this full Moon in Gemini as a new beginning in perception. Both Sun and Moon are at 0 degree, they are like a new pair of glasses, a new start more than a culmination. But are they emerald glasses? rose-colored glasses? Illusion or a clear vision?

‘A NEW DIMENSION OF REALITY’ is promised by this full Moon in Gemini, ‘The revelation of unconscious energies and submerged psychic structures’ cannot be seen if we don’t take a moment to look through the lens of the ‘Glass bottom boat.’ What can be seen may be murky at first, or even ominous.

photo: Bruce Lhuillier

Light through water plays tricks. Distance becomes illusory. We reach for something and it is beyond our grasp. Yet there is something about this underwater world which is intriguing, even necessary to our understanding of the dry land we inhabit. Maybe we can learn something from Jupiter, who has just spent the last year in Scorpio, a watery sign of the deep places. Now he is a few degrees from the Sun in his new sign, Sagittarius. He is there to support the Sun in the newly entered sign, which Jupiter rules.

This is the lunar month of Ngetal, the Reed, a time of dark days, and early nights. Reeds grow in swamps, the beginning of new life, the places of death and renewal, Scorpio. The asteroid Ceres (Demeter) is in Scorpio at this moment. She is in a trine with Mars in Pisces, release and endings. Everything in this chart conspires to offer power to the regal pair, Sun and Moon, ‘the luminaries.’

photo: Sarah Fuhro

Gold is light from the Sun reflected in a swamp near my house. Take heart, this is a full Moon to lift our spirits. Gemini, the chatter box and Sagittarius the visionary, push away the fears, which leap out to deter us.

Silver and Gold, a Full Moon in Leo!

On the night the Moon was a tiny crescent in the sky, I had a dream. The dream was at dawn, and was a voice and big letters, which said: ‘Au’ and ‘Ag.’ Hey, I’m not a chemist, but those are the elemental letters for Silver and Gold! ‘Why,’ I asked the Dream guys, ‘do I need to remember the elemental letters for Silver and Gold?’ No answer.

Photo: Sarah Fuhro

Silver is the Moon, Gold is the Sun.

Last month the full Moon was in Cancer, the Moon’s sign. The metal of the Moon is Silver, Ag, Argentum This month the full Moon is in Leo, the Sun’s sign. Gold is the metal of the Sun, Au, Aurum, Gold.

And this is true at this season every year. Is this the year to awaken to the Silver and Gold of Cancer and Leo? Is this about Male and Female polarity? Is the Moon female, the Sun, male?

Not always.

Here is a picture of the lunar god Mên, worshipped in Asia Minor. He bears the crescents of the Moon on his shoulders, and treads the cow head of Taurus, a Moon loving zodiac sign under his horse’s hoofs. Was there a war between Male and Female lunar deities? Is there a war inside ourselves and perhaps in the evolution of culture that debates whether the Moon is male or female? It may be necessary for each of us to experience our interior self, our reflective self, our ever changing self as male and as female.

photo: Bruce Lhuillier Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Below is a picture with a woman wearing a solar halo, and a man with crescent Moon horns.

photo: Bruce Lhuillier Hammond Castle

This Wednesday’s full Moon is a total eclipse of the Moon, a dramatic moment suitable to Leo, who loves theater. People often saw an eclipse as an attack on the Sun or Moon, a disappearance and reappearance of the light we live by night and day. We still experience this kind of anxiety at the time of an eclipse. It’s important to be aware of the eclipse cycle even if we can’t see it, because we can always feel it in our bodies and psyches.

This Leo Moon will also dramatically affect the tides of the ocean, because the Moon is close to the earth–a Super Moon. The Sabian Symbol for the eclipse says it very clearly: ‘A pageant, with its spectacular floats, moves along a street crowded with cheering people.’ Something, carefully planned is coming together to be expressed on a huge stage. It’s the season of Mardi Gras! This Lunar Eclipse has that feeling of unlimited excess, followed by a truth we already know. The feasting of Mardi Gras is followed by Ash Wednesday, and the traditional forty days of fasting.

The Moon and the asteroid Ceres (Demeter, Earth goddess) are in a perfect conjunction at this moment. Demeter’s grief for her stolen child, Persephone, gave us the seasons. This year, the Leo full Moon is situated close to the festival of Imbolc, Candlemass, Groundhog’s Day, February 2. For those of us who search for a way to reconnect to the rhythms of the earth and sky, Imbolc is the time to gather and embrace the growing light. At Imbolc, the light is a crack in the darkness of winter. Imbolc is sacred to the goddess Bride, mid-wife, poet and black smith. When the doctor told me, my baby would be born on February 2nd, I was ecstatic. My son showed up on that sacred day, and, fortunately, did not see his shadow!

Here, in the frozen or muddy North, we know the light of candles reflected in melting snow has divinatory power. Winter is not over in the North, but is touched by the Sun’s return.

photo: Sarah Fuhro

Silver and Gold, Sun and Moon, light and dark play out in our lives, moment by moment. What illumination will this Sun/Moon moment hold for you? Wednesday’s total Lunar eclipse is the balance to the total Solar eclipse in Leo last August. Hold a moment to honor the ritual of this cosmic and earth time. It is like a heart we can hear beating in our throats.

The Wisdom Tradition evolved over the centuries to address our deepest human needs. Sarah Fuhro is a practitioner of its many forms; including Astrology, Tarot, Flower Essences and Druidry. In addition to personal consultations, Sarah teaches workshops and private classes, offering both clients and students knowledge powerfully rooted in the past, presented in the language of the present. To learn more, please visit www.sarahfuhro.com.

The Sun is in Aries, the Warrior King. The Sun likes to be in this sign of spring energy. He shines well from Aries, and it’s not surprising that this is the full Moon, which marks Easter and Passover, holidays of rebirth which take place after containment and suffering. The symbol for Aries is the Ram’s horns. This is a full Moon often associated with war as we have seen over the last days. We entered the war with Iraq (March 20, 2003) just as the Sun entered Aries at the time of the full Moon. But that war energy can always be transformed into other more constructive forms of life energy, if we have the patience and consciousness.

The Sun is jostled and pressured by Eris and Uranus, or Chaos and Revolution. They are a potent combination for a shake up, both collective and personal. Like clay and bread dough, our Sun is everywhere being pummeled, kneaded, wedged into new shapes.

‘There is no place where those striving after consciousness could find absolute safety. Doubt and insecurity are indispensible components of a complete life.’ (Carl Jung)

Photo: Bruce Lhuillier

Like this much-weathered bit of wood, the forces at work on the Sun, and so our consciousness are many. Yet this is the basis for new life forms like the moss to flourish.

Uranus is not the only revolutionary in the chart of the full Moon. Pluto, the Lord of the Underworld, is in a square to this spring time Sun. He turns over the soil to expose what is buried beneath, because that is where his kingdom is located. Pluto doesn’t let us forget what we can’t see or would rather not see. Bugs and grubs are probably feasting on this log where it still has moisture and life. The waves and tides of what shaped the bones of a living tree remain in a beautiful design.

‘A complete life does not consist in a theoretical completeness, but in the fact that one accepts, without reservation, the particular fatal issue in which one finds oneself embedded, and that one tries to make sense of it or to create a cosmos from the chaotic mess into which one is born.’ (Carl Jung)

Photo: Robert Fuhro

Venus, traveling in reverse is feeling the power of Saturn. These two are often in conflict and many stories tell the repressive power of Saturn (patriarchy) upon Venus. Yet the signs of these two planets might tell of another story, perhaps the basis for Merlin and Nimue. Each taught the other their style of magic, which gave immortality to both.

Saturn in Sagittarius is the wise philosopher. Venus in Pisces so very close the Chiron the healer, might actually be an expression of love at a higher level of expression. Pisces and Sagittarius are in charge of universal love, a steadfast love that exists from one lifetime to another, but always in a different form.

Photo: Bruce Lhuillier

This is the season when the Maiden, Persephone returns from Pluto’s kingdom in the Underworld. Held captive by the Lord of Darkness, she is now Queen of the Dead, except when she returns to greet her mother the Earth.

Aphrodite Sarah Fuhro

In the core of our apple,

we call the planet earth,

dwells the great polestar

of the underworld-

Lord of Change,

Transformer eternal,

Hades himself.

With each breath

he draws into his lungs

the Universe is born anew.

His trumpet voice penetrates

where justice has been forgotten.

Hades alone has the key

to every rusted lock.

Why then,

did Lady Aphrodite,

bright and beautiful

among all the gods,

so lightly appoint

dark scowling Hades

for the maiden,

Persephone–to be her

chosen spouse?

Whoever has walked

across a freshly plowed

field at twilight

and raised loving eyes

to see the crescent

Moon adorned

by the evening star,

you are entering

the drama which

has no beginning

and knows no end.

Once more the Maiden

returns pure and slender

to be gathered like wheat

in the brown arms

of her grieving mother.

Once more we are freed

from the dark shelter

of womb and grave,

because the Maiden has

risen to embrace and dance

upon the greening earth.

Photo: Bruce Lhuillier

But what of this full Moon in Libra? She is more than a reflection of the beleaguered Sun in Aries. She watches with Jupiter from across the chart and across the sky. If the sky is clear they will be visible as they travel together the next few days.

Photo: Bruce Lhuiller

Jupiter like the Lady Venus is also in retrograde. He went retrograde in February opposite those two change agents, Uranus and Eris, who at this full Moon nestle up to the Aries Sun. Jupiter in Libra, ‘Cosmic Optimism’ for the besieged Aries Sun has kept some balance in a world of uncertainty. But now the Moon must hold that balance.

Photo: Bruce Lhuillier

The Moon is the point of an astrological pattern called a Yod or Finger of God. Creating the energy for this Yod are the Venus/Chiron combination and Mars and Demeter in Taurus. This powerful combination of Venus in conjunction with the healer, Chiron and Mars in partnership with the earth mother, has the potential for a very focused ritual of Earth love and healing.

Photo: Robert Fuhro

The Sabian Symbol for this lovely Libra Moon is: ‘A child giving birds a drink at a fountain.’

It seems like a perfect combination with the Symbol for the Sun in Aries: ‘The gate to the Garden of all fulfilled desires. Abundance made possible by human togetherness and cooperation. Cosmic optimism.’

Photo: Bruce Lhuillier

With each turn of the cosmic sky we have the opportunity to enter a new gate, and discover new worlds of possibility!

Sarah Fuhro sarahfuhro@gmail.com Keeping our Ancient Wisdom Alive

The Wisdom Tradition evolved over the centuries to address our deepest human needs. Sarah Fuhro is a practitioner of its many forms; including Astrology, Tarot, Flower Essences and Druidry. In addition to personal consultations, Sarah teaches workshops and private classes, offering both clients and students knowledge powerfully rooted in the past, presented in the language of the present. To learn more, please visit www.sarahfuhro.com.

This is a full Moon in total eclipse-but it’s a penumbral eclipse. The earth’s shadow falls across the Moon, it’s visible, but very subtle. A penumbral eclipse is unusual. There a re never more than nine in a century, and some centuries miss out on them all together. To notice this eclipse, you need to know it’s happening. It’s like a party for the initiated! If the sky permits you to see this delicate veil across the Moon, Friday at 7:33 pm (EST), then you are a member of the initiated. But don’t worry, whether or not you see her physical form in the sky, the energy of this vibrant Leo Moon will still make its mark on your life.

The Sabian Symbol for both Sun and Moon represent the discipline necessary to evolve without destroying natural and vital forces. The Sabian Symbol for the Moon: ‘In a Circus, the bareback rider displays her dangerous skill. Keynote: The audacity and perseverance required to control and play with the powerful energies of the vital realm in human existence. Virtuosity.’ Leo is the sign most associated with Ego and the Sun. This is the Ego in its highest form, because it has been ‘tamed’ and yet it retains the vital life force of the horse, and the Lion.

The Sun at 22° of Aquarius has another image of evolved animal energy: ‘A big Bear sitting down and waving all its paws. Keynote: The self-discipline which results from an intelligent development of individual faculties under proper training. Discipleship.’

This is going to be a full Moon of focused energy, but it requires consciousness to ride with it. The Strength card from the Thoth deck represents this degree in one way, a ride on the power of Leo, requiring mastery of the rider. The Rider Waite Strength card represents it in another way with emphasis on the gentle mastery of power.

Sun and Moon are at this degree, but so is Vesta, she who guards the hearth, and Eris, the goddess of Chaos dwells at 22° as well. Eris is in close company with Uranus who is electric and a master of high tech communication. Much of the drama we see in the political waves of the moment seems symbolic of this pair: Uranus and Eris, and their conjunction in Aries, soon to be joined there by Mars.

Also at 22 degrees of Pisces,°we have Chiron, the wounded centaur who heals all others but himself. Chiron is in a square to Saturn. This guarantees that wounds will have salt rubbed into them, and probably from someone in authority. I wonder who that might be? This square lasts for a year and while it will touch everyone, it hits those with these birthdays most exactly:

December 11 through 19 of any year
March 10 through 17 of any year
June 10 through 18 of any year
September 13 through 20 of any year

A square between Chiron and Saturn guarantees old stories come back to haunt us until we learn new techniques to heal ourselves and turn those healing methods out to others. Until we become light workers, and from our experience of pain, draw balm for others, we circle around and around issues of authority, self acceptance, and leap from formless and permanent immaturity to rigid structures, until we no longer know who we are.

But when the heart opens, and the Ego becomes the vital force of the soul, everything changes, and the Saturn-Chiron square represents the master healer, the leader who leads by example, the authority who serves others by opening her heart. We have a year of this experience for everyone on earth. Why does it seem as if so many lessons must be learned through pain?

Jupiter provides some balance. He is at 23° of Libra, the scales. Because he is in retrograde, he too will soon be in another 22° position. Uranus who is across the chart from him, will also move by direct motion into 22°of Aries, and the ruler of that sign, Mars will join Uranus, opposite Jupiter in 22° Aries. Twenty-two degrees demands greatness from each of us…we are all expected to build in a ‘masterful’ way.

What if this full Moon in Leo represents harnessing the Wind (Aquarius is an Air sign) and Sun (Leo is a Fire sign) to empower our planet without destroying her? This is where Vesta, (also at 22°) might take on the meaning of the hearth and home as source of electricity. Right now my solar panels are covered in newly fallen snow, but most daylight hours, they are working to add non-polluting energy to the electric grid. The potential to use each moment of cosmic drama to joyful advantage is always with us!

Photos: Bruce Lhuillier

Header photo: Sarah Fuhro

Sarah Fuhro sarahfuhro@gmail.com Keeping our Ancient Wisdom Alive

The Wisdom Tradition evolved over the centuries to address our deepest human needs. Sarah Fuhro is a practitioner of its many forms; including Astrology, Tarot, Flower Essences and Druidry. In addition to personal consultations, Sarah teaches workshops and private classes, offering both clients and students knowledge powerfully rooted in the past, presented in the language of the present. To learn more, please visit www.sarahfuhro.com. Sarah Fuhro

The full Moon of August 18 is tightly interwoven with other planets and asteroids! There is a lot of pressure from these ‘aspects’ to the Sun and Moon, just as there is on us as human beings when we use our power, or feel the limits of our power, or take joy in or regret the way we have used power. The subject of power is always part of our lives, a challenge we feel daily, and which astrologers constantly weigh in charts.Sun in Leo has traditional power reserved for this sign. Just as the lion is the ‘king of the beasts,’ Leo Sun is imbued with heightened power. And so in astrology, the sign, placement and aspects to each planet are weighed to understand how it feels to be in a particular moment.

The fiery Leo Sun beats down on us in the Northern Hemisphere, but the Aquarius Moon has a cool, balanced nature to give us the relief we need from summer heat.

This particular Sun Moon opposition falls across my astrology chart’s horizon line. August
18 is the day the Sun comes back into play for me each year as it touches down on my Ascendant, and enters the First House. On this day, light. the moment of dawn, I no longer must feel my way through the dark, but can see again! Each of us has this day, which follows a month of dark Sun, but like night the Sun’s journey through our Twelfth House has special gifts!

How we deal with time and the passage of time is one of the themes here. Are we afraid of time, feel ‘pressed’ for time, or worry about time so that we can’t live in the present moment, eternal time, dance with time. That’s one reason to celebrate the full Moon, alone, or in a group. It’s a moment in time, which reoccurs monthly to bring heightened consciousness.

Every few years I get caught up in collage. The chart for this event seems perfect for collage illustrations. Like an astrology chart, a collage has disparate pieces, which must come together with acknowledgement to all the other bits. And, like an astrology chart, certain aspects of the whole picture will jump out with greater importance.

The aspect, which catches my attention in this chart, is the relationship between the planet Uranus and the Sun and Moon. Electrical Uranus is in Aries, a sign of fire, courage, anger, sexuality. Uranus has a close companion, Eris, a dwarf planet, named for the sister of the god Aries. She is the divinity of Chaos. We have all noticed the effects of Uranus and Eris in conjunction. There seems to be a pounding quality to the times, or are we just more aware of the sudden and unexpected events which transform the world around us? We seem to be like grain on a mill stone. Will we turn into flour or dust? This question seems to be in the Sabian Symbol for Uranus today: ‘The possibility for man to gain experience at two levels of being. The revelation of new potentialities.’ This is the energy (Uranus traveling through Aries) available, if we dare to use it. This is the challenge of each full Moon. Regal Leo and Humanitarian Aquarius both have a place in our consciousness.

There is another opposition which seems significant..Neptune and Venus are on opposite sides of the chart. Venus is about love, beauty, regeneration, and Neptune is also about love, a love that goes beyond time, the essence of love, the oceanic quality of love. To be in contact with this love, ecstatic, universal, it is necessary to release judgment, ego, and self criticism. The way to this is not part of our culture, although it never disappears completely. The Sabian Symbol for this degree of Neptune, suggests one technique: ‘In the sanctuary of an occult brotherhood, newly initiated members are being examined and their character tested. ‘ This was part of the secret societies which were prevalent in pre Christian Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean, the societies of Orpheus and Persephone and Isis. All included stories of Hades (Pluto) and the journey into the Underworld. They seem to have in common, a disappearance of the outer society’s hierarchy, e.g. women and slaves are treated as equals to free men, and there is a process of death and rebirth which is experienced over and over again.

Sarah Fuhro Keeping our Ancient Wisdom Alive
The Wisdom Tradition evolved over the centuries to address our deepest human needs. Sarah Fuhro is a practitioner of its many forms; including Astrology, Tarot, Flower Essences and Druidry. In addition to personal consultations, Sarah teaches workshops and private classes, offering both clients and students knowledge powerfully rooted in the past, presented in the language of the present. To learn more, please visit www.sarahfuhro.com.

A Dark Moon, A Dark Sun, a Full House in Pisces

A meeting has been called in the sign of Pisces. Gathered together are Mercury, the messenger; Neptune, the visionary; Ceres, the earth mother; the new Moon, queen of cycles; the Sun, a king in eclipse; Chiron, the wounded healer; and the South Node in Pisces, the location and timing of this solar/lunar event. The flavor of this stellar event is Pisces; the theme is compassion, intuition, mystical knowledge, music, and addiction to what can’t be seen, but can only be felt: A Love Supreme, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clC6cgoh1sU.

John Coltrane’s opus, A Love Supreme sets the tone for this total solar eclipse on Tuesday, March 8. Coltrane’s ascendant, his soul gate is at 2° of Pisces. The Sabian Symbol for this degree is: Petrified tree trunks lie broken on desert sand.Keynote: The power to preserve records of their achievements which is inherent in fully matured culture.Indestructability. Music is both ephemeral and transcendent, like Pisces. Love, like music renews itself with each phrase, just as the Moon renews herself with each new Lunar cycle, and as we renew our connection to life with each new breath.

You won’t see the eclipse unless you are in Eastern Asia, but this combination of planets, a total solar eclipse, and the closeness of the Moon (Perigee) to earth means the lunar and Piscean energy will reverberate wherever you are. This is a moment to stop and take note, to listen to what must be healed within and without.

You won’t see the eclipse unless you are in Eastern Asia, but this combination of planets, a total solar eclipse, and the closeness of the Moon (Perigee) to earth means the lunar and Piscean energy will reverberate wherever you are. This is a moment to stop and take note, to listen to what must be healed within and without.

The Moon is always invisible at the time of the new Moon. All this has to be felt, and it can only be felt if you honor this celestial event with some form of consciousness. Meet the new lunar cycle in mystery and darkness if you can. You can become part of the stellium in Pisces with meditation, music-the music of your soul, and water. Float a candle in a bowl of water and listen to some music which reconnects you to a Love Supreme.

Jupiter is in perfect opposition to the new Moon and Sun. He’s one of two planets who rule Pisces and set the tone for this zodiac sign. He is the King of the gods on Olympus (Zeus), and expands our spirits through optimism and hope. Some say he supplanted the original monarch of the Greeks, Hera. Juno (Hera) in this chart is trine to Ceres (Demeter). Are we going to see a flood of female energy return to balance a long imbalance of male energy, as illustrated in the American election drama? Yet neither political party speaks to the cause of Demeter, our earth mother. This chart has the potential to bring attention to the environment, with yet another warning about the way we dishonor our home.

The outer planet ruler of Pisces is Neptune, who is part of the confab of planets, which are teaching us Pisces’ values. To feel another’s pain and pleasure is the genius of Pisces. The Age of Pisces began around the time of Christ and is now on the wane. At that time, two thousand years ago, a prophet symbolized by a fish, also the symbol of Pisces, spoke of the importance of love; ‘love thy neighbor, as thyself,’ a very difficult commandment. The sacrificial aspect of the fish became a theme in Christian doctrine. Yet often it was applied to the poor and to women, and left out the powerful and men.

To make this chart even more intense, Saturn and Uranus are in trine to one another and both contact the central players in the Pisces line up. Saturn would like to put the brakes on change;

Uranus can’t wait to set fire to the establishment. Expect more in the way of change and the resistance to change. Saturn makes a square to Jupiter, on one side and on the other to the Sun/Moon/Ceres drama. The outlet for all of this is in Gemini. Gemini is communication, and a kind of nervous energy, which can make polarities seem like irreconcilable opposites instead of equal parts of a whole. In the Gemini card (The Lovers) from the Arthurian Legend Tarot we are offered another view of polarity. Gareth and Lyoness walk side by side in the forest. Their relationship does not consume or eliminate either one. As the seasons change so does their bond. The usual sense of this card as one of choice, takes on an evolutionary tone. We don’t have to eliminate contradictory elements in our nature. Astrology shows us the complexity of our nature held within a circle, a living picture of many parts which ‘feels’ change.

And one last player cannot be overlooked. Pluto trines Jupiter and makes a sextile to the luminaries. His influence as Death, as Lord of the Underworld is always triumphant, offering us the power of our own being. Don Juan in Journey to Ixtlan says to Carlos: ‘Death is the only wise advisor that we have. Whenever you feel, as you always do, that everything is going wrong and you’re about to be annihilated, turn to your death and ask if that is so. Your death will tell you that you’re wrong; that nothing really matters outside its touch. Your death will tell you, ‘I haven’t touched you yet’.’ Carlos Castaneda.

Sarah Fuhro

sarahfuhro@gmail.com

Keeping our Ancient Wisdom Alive

The Wisdom Tradition evolved over the centuries to address our deepest human needs. Sarah Fuhro is a practitioner of its many forms; including Astrology, Tarot, Flower Essences and Druidry. In addition to personal consultations, Sarah teaches workshops and private classes, offering both clients and students knowledge powerfully rooted in the past, presented in the language of the present. To learn more, please visit www.sarahfuhro.com.